Player-piano.



J. LEISCH.

PLAYER PIANO.

APPLICATlON FILED NOV. I6, 1911. 1 166 609 Patented Jan. 4, 1916.

M 2 SHEETS-SHEET L 5 25 Wma/zw Mommy COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH co..WASHINGTON, D. c.

J. LElSCH.

PLAYER PIANO.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 16, 1911.

Patented Jan. 4, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

COLUMBXA FLANOORAPH co, WASHINGTON, D. c.

-UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH LEISCH, OF TBYON, NORTH CAROLINA, ASSIGNOR TO THE JOHN CHURCHCOMPANY, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

PLAYER-PIANO.

Application filed November 16, 1911.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Josnrrr LEISCH, a citizen of the United States, anda resident of Tryon, in the county of Polk and State of North Carolina,have invented certain new and useful improvements in Player- Pianos, ofwhich the following is a full, clear, and exact description, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisspecification.

My invention relates to player pianos in which the piano keys areconnected with a series of power pneumatics, which are operatedmechanically by pneumatic power, released by the exposure of openings ina tracker board by the movement of specially prepared slotted orperforated sheets of music, which are propelled over the tracker boardto actuate the pneumatic devices.

The object of my'present invention is to provide a construction wherebythe operation of the pneumatics may be duplicated for the purpose ofgiving additional force to the stroke of the hammer of the piano actionon the keys in order to accent any desired notes, and it consists ofthat certain novel construction and arrangement of arts to behereinafter particularly pointe out and claimed whereby a duplicateseries of power pneumatics are arranged in compact position in a singlepneumatic chest, each pair of pneumatics for each note being so arrangedand coupled together that one pneumatic of each pair may be operated byitself for ordinary strokes, or the pair of pneumatics may be operatedsimultaneously to double the force of the hammer stroke for all tones tobe accented.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a top plan view of a portion of thepneumatic chest with a portion thereof in horizontal section. Fig. 2 isa cross sectional view through the chest and pneumatics, taken in avertical plane. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one end of the playerchest, Fig. 1 being on the line 1, 1, thereof.

The Pneumatic chest is represented by l, and is arranged in duplicate,with a vacuum chamber 2 for one half of the chest and a vacuum chamber 3for the other half, and these two vacuum chambers are in communicationWith duplicate openings in the tracker board through separate trackertubes 4, 5. The tracker tubes 4 are each connected to its primary pouch6, located along the bot- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 4, 1916.

Serial No. 660,588.

tom of the vacuum chamber 2 common to all of the pouches, and each ofthese tracker tubes is provided with a bleed opening 7 from the vacuumchamber into its respective tube, so that the vacuum of the chest ismaintained in the tracker tubes.

Directly over each pouch 6 is located the primary valve 8, provided withthe bottom disk 9 andthe upper disk 10, with the two disks opening andclosing the port 11 from the vacuum chamber to the outer air. In

their normal position, the disks 9 of these valves rest on the deflatedpouches 6, and the upper disks 10 close the ports 11. Connected to eachport are a passageway 12 and tube 13-which extend to the secondaryvacuum chamber 14 in which are located the secondary pouches 15, one foreach tube 13. Directly over each of the pouches 15 is a secondary valvecomprising a bottom disk 16 and an upper disk 17, the two disks openingand closing the port 18 from the vacuum chamber into the passageway 19leading into the power pneumatic 20. The disk 17 also operates to openand close the port 21 from the passageway 19 into the outer air. Intheir normal position, thevalve disks 16 rest on the deflated pouches 15and the passageway 19 is open to the air, and the pneumatic is inactive.

The construction above described is the or dinary and usual constructionfor the double valve player piano action, and the operation will beevident.

When any of the tracker tubes 4 open to the atmosphere by reason of theperforations in the music sheet passing over the openings in the trackerboard, the vacuum in the particular tube 4 is released, the primaryvalve is open, which releases the vacuum in the tubes 13, inflates thepouches 15 and opens the particular passageway 19 to the vacuum chamber14, creating suction in the pneumatic 20 and causing the movable member22 thereof to rise and with it the extension 23 in contact with the lug2+ on the abstract 25 of the piano action, and thus the hammer of thepiano action will be operated.

It will be understood that there are as many power pneumatics as thereare keys to be operated, and that in order to economize space, thepneumatics are not placed in line side by side, but are arranged instaggered relation in groups of three, as indicated in the drawings. Ihave, therefore, only particularly described the parts with reference tothe lower pneumatic of the group of three The movable members 26 and 27of the other sets of pneumatics are operated and controlled exactly asdescribed with reference to the lowermost pneumatic, and the extensions28, 29, from these pneumatics actuate their respective piano actions byraising their respective lugs 30 and 31 as hereinbefore described.

In order to double the force of the stroke of the hammer of the pianoaction, I provide a duplicate vacuum chest with a duplicate vacuumchamber 3 and tracker tubes 5, with primary pouches 32-, valves 33,passageways as and tubes 35 leading to secondary vacuum chamber 36controlled by secondary valves 87 to open up the passages 38 into theduplicate set of power pneumatics 39, which are arranged as heretoforedescribed for the first set in staggered rela tion in groups of three,as indicated at 40 and ll. The only difference is that the pneumatics inthe duplicate set are reversed, and the movable members 42, 43 and 4A:of this series of pneumatics are uppermost. The extension arms 5, 4G and47 from this series connect with their respec tive rods or wires 4-8,l?) and 50, and these rods are each coupled to one end 01' a corresponding rock lever 51, each pivoted mid- Way of its length to adepending support 52. The opposite end 53 01 each one of these leversextends directly under its corresponding abstract 25 of the pianoaction. These pneumatics are all arranged in pairs, one of each pairdesigned to contact with a lug as 24- on the abstract of the pianoaction operating its particular note upon the piano, while thecorresponding pneumatic of the player is connected with the sameabstract through the medium of the rock lever 51.

It will be evident from this construction,

that when it is desired to accent any particular notes of the musicscore, duplicate slots will be provided for the perforated music sheet,whereby the corresponding pair of tracker tubes may be openedsimultaneously. In this way, the force applied to the abstract of thepiano action will be doubled.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

In an arrangement of parts in a player piano in combination with thepiano action, a main system, comprising a series of primary pneumaticsset in staggered relation in a horizontal plane, a series of powerpneumatics, secondary pneumatics for each power pneumatic mountedtogether with and adjacent to the fixed members thereof, the powerpneumatics set in staggered relation in a vertical plane, and a completeauxiliary system set back to back with the main system throughout andcomprising primary pneumatics in like relation and back to back withthose 01" the main set, sec ondary pneumatics, and power pneumaticsmounted together in like relation to those of the main system and set invertical staggered relation back to back with those of the main system,said auxiliary power pneumatics being positioned so that their movablemembers move in the opposite direction to those of the main system,whereby each main power pneumatic is back to back and parallel with anauxiliary power pneumatic, and operative connection from each powerpneumatic of the main system and its parallel and back to back powerpneumatic of the auxiliary system to a separate member of the pianoaction, whereby a compact and accessible player chest is provided.

JOSEPH LEISGH.

Attest:

MAnsToN ALLEN, EARL W. GRIFFIN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, byaddressing. the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). G.

